Anne Bishop

An inn owner and her shape-shifting lodger find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.

Lake Silence

Jasmine

3.5-4 Stars
Yes, I missed Simon, Meg, Simon, Tess, Vlad, and all of my other favorite lakeside residents. I'm still sad that their story has ended because I wasn't ready to let them go. That being said I quickly fell in love with the fascinating characters in this spinoff series Ilya, Grimshaw, Julian, Aggie, and Meg *cough* I mean Viki (who honestly I could have sworn was Meg at times, especially when she talked to the others). I love terra indigene so fucking much! Reading about their interaction with humans and each other always brings me to my happy place and that clearly hasn't changed. They're such a lethal but loveable group of characters. I enjoyed the fact that this book gave us some insight into more wonderful terra indigene out there like the lady of the lake and the cute carrot loving sproingers. Overall, if I were to compare, the first five books will eclipse this spinoff book any day in the terms of storyline and characters. However, I have to admit these new residents have endeared themselves to me and I guess now I just have another group to love!

Celeste Richardson

Full review now posted!

I love this series so much. And this installment didn't disappoint.

I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since a book legitimately caused me to lose sleep, or consumed my thoughts to such extremes that I became poor company because literally all I wanted to do was read and read and read some more. That used to be my standard mode of operation when reading anything, but for the past several months even the best of books haven’t been able to elicit this type of response. I’ve been reading responsibly, able to put a book down to hold a discussion or do work, for far too long. I missed being completely absorbed by and addicted to a book. 

But guess what?! I finally succumbed to book addiction again, and I enjoyed every second of it. I absolutely loved The Others series by Anne Bishop, and was sad when it came to an end. Imagine my delight upon hearing that she was working on more stories in that world, just with a different cast of characters. I was incredibly excited to revisit a world I love, but also hesitant to venture back into it without the cast of characters I had embraced. I needn’t have worried. If anything, being introduced to a new cast of characters was refreshing, and I came to love them as much as the original cast. We get more of the terra indigene, more of the Sanguinati, more of the Elementals and Elders. We see life in a small lake town instead of in the heart of a city. We see a normal human woman working to overcome her demons and build a new life for herself in the midst of the Others. And it was all absolutely wonderful.

Anne Bishop does a good job of creating main characters who are strong women and good men, as I saw mentioned in an article about this series. But she also does a great job with her villains. Unlike a lot of popular fiction now, Bishop’s good guys and bad guys are always clearly cast in black and white instead of gray, which is honestly kind of a nice break from the moral ambiguity that defines so much modern fiction. But my favorite aspect of this series remains the Others, in all their various forms. I love how their presence changes how humans live their lives. 

My second favorite thing about this series is the writing. It’s incredibly simplistic, but purposefully so. The simple prose lends a childlikeness to the characters, which is both appropriate in regard to how the Others live and define the interaction of humans, and an interesting contrast to the brutality inflicted upon those who cross the Others. There is something about the counterbalance of the innocent tone of the prose and the brutal violence often found in the pages that just works incredibly well. 

To the best of my knowledge, these new novels in The Others series will be standalones in other locations in this world, taking place after the events of Etched in Bone (book 5). I don’t know how often characters will cross over, or how often places will be revisited, but I honestly am okay with however Bishop decides to carry on. The world she created is rich in lore and possibilities, and I can’t wait to see where she takes us next!

Original review can be found at Booknest.

In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, an inn owner and her shape-shifting lodger find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets. Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others--vampires, shape-shifters, and even deadlier paranormal beings. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget.... After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns such as Vicki's don't have any distance from the Others, the dominant predators who rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what is out there watching you. Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe--one of the shape-shifting Others--discovers a murdered man, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, ancient forces are roused by the disturbance in their domain. They have rules that must not be broken--and all the destructive powers of nature at their command.

Vilde

4.5

I'm so delightful to be reunited with the world of The Others in Lake Silence. Whilst different from the previous books in some aspects, it still retains its engrossing and fascinating qualities. The area that is in the center of Lake Silence is unexplored, and the book delves deeper into the world of this universe. I really like the dynamics between the humans and The Others. Our main character Vicki is no Meg (and to be honest, nobody can beat Meg), she is still reminiscence of Meg in terms of her innocence, and she is quite witty. I appreciate that Lake Silence is set after the events of the previous books, as one can glimpse a mention of our characters from the previous books in periphery. Lastly, Alexandra Harris is brilliant as the narrator. I was a bit worried, if I was going to think too much about Meg and Simon, but Harris embodies Vicki (and the other characters) as well as she did with her previous performances.

Lauren Sullivan

Trigger warning: domestic violence (verbal), anxiety/panic attacks 

Ms. Bishop's the Others series is, well, interesting.  The world building is both very good and somewhat lackadaisical (computers and email exist even though most of America is covered in forest).  Sometimes the characters do things for completely incomprehensible reasons, and there are frequently clunkily worded sentences.  Also, the bad guys are very, very evil, and the good guys tend to be, well, Mary Sues.  The plot lines are pretty simple.  The main character, usually female, is hurt by a Very Bad Man, main character somehow ends up befriending the Others, Very Bad Man and friends do dumb stuff and then get eaten by the Others.  It's basically justice porn.  But, I mean, this book starts out with the main character walking in on her lodger microwaving an eyeball for lunch, so, I'm not going to really complain.  They're fun, humorous, and completely over the top, and they're simply great fun to read.

This is the first in a new storyline with The Others universe, so I suppose someone could pick this up without prior knowledge of the Others, though I think they'd be a tad confused.  Lakeside Courtyard, and cassandra sangue, are mentioned only in passing, so if you go into this looking for more Meg and Simon, you'll be disappointed.  Instead, we have the town of Sproing (I know, I know, this is one of those things you just have to overlook with this series), which is controlled by the terra indigene, otherwise known as the Others, mostly wild creatures who can, if they wish, assume human shape, and Vicki, the new protagonist.  Vicki received The Jumble - a village-size cluster of cottages with private beach access to Lake Silence - as part of a divorce settlement from her ex-husband.  She's new to the village, but has spent the past few months repairing the cottages, and even has her first lodger - who just so happens to be a Crow terra indigene.  Of course, things happen, and Vicki ends up the victim of a sinister plot, and somehow her ex is involved, of course.  Luckily, she's got a highway patrol police officer, a "yummy" vampire lawyer, the former-police-now-bookstore-owner love interest, the boarding-house-owner-with-scary-tattoos, and a bunch of what I think are supposed to be kangaroos on her side.

“I looked at the screen door and wondered about something else. 'Do the Sanguinati have trouble with mosquitoes?'
'You mean, do the big bloodsuckers get pestered by the little bloodsuckers?'
Judging by my attorney’s laughter, if I failed to turn The Jumble into a viable business, I could always get a job as a standup comedian in a vampire bar.”

I sympathized with Vicki DeVine (and that's the last time I'll type out her last name, because good night that's awful).  She's self-conscious of her looks (she's short and plump) and has deep emotional scars from her verbally abusive marriage.  Raised voices, and men in general, can send her spiraling into a bad panic attack.  Despite all that, she's worked hard to make a go of it with The Jumble, and has started to settle in with the rest of Sproing's inhabitants.  Wayne Grimshaw is the highway patrol police officer from the nearest city who's sent to investigate Vicki's call about an eyeball, and he seemed generally nice, if a bit two-dimensional.  Unlike the main cop from the previous set of books, there doesn't seem much else to him other than that he likes Vicki and wants to make sure she's treated fairly.  Julian Farrow is the owner of the village bookstore, and also someone Grimshaw was friends with at the police academy, though he dropped out of police work after being attacked and nearly killed one night on patrol.  It seems like Julian's being set up as Vicki's love interest (another bookseller, really?), which, well, whatever, but note that there's pretty much no romantic content in this book.  As for the terra indigene contingent, we have "yummy" Ilya, the head of the Sanguinati lodge in Sproing, who own pretty much the entire town and Aggie, the crow guard lodger whose unconventional lunch starts the whole plot.

“'And while you and Grimshaw and Julian get this straightened out for silly, incompetent me, I’ll just sit in a corner somewhere and do nothing, because that’s all I’m good at.' I’d meant it to sound humorous—don’t ask me how it could—but even to my ears it sounded bitter. Defeated.
'Can you kill a human, Victoria?' Ilya asked.
'No.'
'Then let those who can deal with these predators.'
'That’s your plan? Kill Yorick and those other men?'
'Not if I can find a better way to solve the problem.'

As for the plot, well, it's predictable.  I really wish Vicki had more agency in this book.  I understand that that's probably unrealistic after being set up as son emotionally broken, and she does man up for the climatic bit of the book, but at a lot of times it felt like the Others were basically treating her like a pet and taking care of all her problems for her.  Her worth, to them, is basically being the human caretaker of The Jumble and reading them stories three nights a week.  

Now let's talk about ridiculous.  Vicki refers to her ex, Yorick, and his Vigorous Appendage (yes, with the caps) several times, and people, I just can't.  The next - the bad guys all belong to, I swear I'm not making this up, the Tie Clip Club.  Originally, the good guys came up with this as sort of a tongue-in-cheek name to describe a secret club where the members are identified by wearing a specific tie clip, and I giggled at the name then, but no, really, that's what they actually call themselves.  While there are multiple POVs in the story, most of them are told in third-person while Vicki's is told in first-person.  While I actually prefer first-person POV, switching between the two types was jarring for me.

Overall, while I do complain a lot about the over the topness of these books, I keep picking them up every time a new one is released.  Yes, they're predictable, and it seems like large chunks have been copy-and-pasted from the first set of books, but there's something to be said for knowing exactly what you're going to get when you pick up a book.  They're ridiculous but enjoyable, so I'm going to say this falls somewhere on the 3-4 star scale for me, so I'll round up to 4 stars.  Recommended for fans of word building who aren't afraid of Sproingers or Vigorous Appendages.

Nickie Mohler

Even though I miss Meg, Simon, and everyone from Lakeside Courtyard, I loved this book! I love the world created for these books. The new characters are fantastic. Vicky, Julian, Ineke, Grimshaw, Osgood. And all the new Terra indigene, Ilya, sproingers, Aggie, Conan, Cougar, The Lady of the Lake and many more. Such a wonderful story, I was tempted to skip work just so I could finish it! Now I'm sad that it's over. I can't wait for the next one!

Christina M Masters

3.5 starts, but I decided to round up rather than down.

Review to come.

Megan Cooper

3.5 stars. As a standalone Others story it was good and I did enjoy it, but after binge reading The Others series I missed the other characters. As with the other books, I think I liked the Other characters more than the humans - Vicki was a bit too much of a mess to root for but I found I liked Grimshaw quite a bit. It was also nice to get a better perspective of the Crows ... they were in the original series, but Aggie is a more prevalent character in this book. I would have liked a bit more about the other Others ... the Spoingers , Elementals, Lady of the Lake... but this is one book whereas the original series spanned five so there was a lot more time and page space to delve into those characters. If you enjoyed the first series with Meg, Simon and the rest of the crew, you'll like this one. I'm quite looking forward to the next in this offshoot series that's set in one of the Western towns that is being repopulated after the Elders decimated the original townsfolk.

Judy Hudgins

It just seemed like a good time to reread this book and I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time around.

Ciska van Bokhorst

Ik wilde dit boek eerst niet lezen omdat de personages uit de vorige boeken er niet in voor kwamen. Maar ik miste de wereld dus ben hem toch gaan lezen. En blij dat ik het heb gedaan.
Het is niet een orgineel boek, de opzet van de vorige boeken is in met nieuwe karakters opgevoerd maar dat vond ik niet erg.
Het heeft dezelfde humor en actie. Ik heb ervan genoten en kijk uit naar het volgende deel. Die gaat over het stadje wat we kennen uit de eerste boeken.

Lake Silence

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